of every one who respects his own comfort, lowed the union of my dear departed parents or the good of his fellow men. However, on earth, and, I doubt not, paved the way for Fanny, I can conceive of no greater earthly the perpetuity of their bliss in heaven. Unblessing than to be descended from honorable, doubtedly they had acted wisely by allowing virtuous, patriotic, and high-minded people time to test, with its touchstone, the proper who would not, to gain an empire, stoop to a character of their attachment to each other, mean, low, dishonorable action;-and there- in order to ascertain if it would enable them fore, one cannot help feeling a degree of hon- to cope with the cares and anxieties of life, est pride in being allied to such illustrious as well as to enjoy its sunshine and smiles, ancestors. But such are not in repute where by working together as heirs of the grace of the glare of human glory is viewed through life-studying one another's tempers, habits, a false and deceptive medium, and receives modes of thinking, disposition, and sympathe foul homage and detestable flattery of thies, ere they asked the parson to tie the servile sycophants and supple knaves. This hymenial knot at the altar of the church.is, to a wider extent, the case in England, Then when the good man had done his duty, where I spent my early years, than on this it was only necessary for them to bear in side of the ocean, as I will show by-and-by. mind, that their interests from that time forth, Meantime, let us attend to Edmund. even forever, were one and indivisible,-a truth, this, which seems never to strike deep into the dull brains of a great many married people; at least, if it does, they act not from a conviction of its great propriety. I do not think it ever entered into the heads of either Edmund or Lucy; for they still acted as if a dissolution of the existing co-partnership would have been a desideratum. If he was for going east, she was still for holding on toward the west, so that ere they were long united in wedlock, they seemed to be most happy when farthest apart from each other. They had acted imprudently in coming together in a hasty manner, without taking time to sound the depths of their own hearts, or to know "He was a man of fashion and a lover of pleasure more than the things that are good, and enjoyed sufficient intercourse with our sex to drill him in the art of making love without the aid of Ovid. Possessing from nature a fine person, and a smooth oily tongue, well versed in courtly phrases and highsounding words, he was by many set down as a notable, gifted, and well bred person; but some, who set more value on the manners of the real gentleman, than the loose, corrupt, libertine breeding of the disciples of Chesterfield, thought otherwise. The truth is, Fitzmaurice was not one of 'nature's nobility,' for he was a dissembler-one who could at will assume the character and bear-aught of each other, so as to judge as far as ing of virtue, and hence those who were not thoroughly acquainted with his character, were apt to be imposed upon. human judgment could, if the love professed was real, or likely to lead to connubial happiness; and the result was, that after the first transports of passion were over, they had sufficient time to brood upon their rashness, folly, and precipitancy. "It is almost needless to say he was well received at the family mansion of the Glenvilles. The old people were in ecstacies about the eclat that awaited their beautiful daugh- "Though Lucy was, from the date of her ter, and Lucy's heart bounded with delight existence, a spoiled child, yet I have no hesiin her bosom, as she contemplated the de-||tation in saying that she would have made a lightful prospective; for she, poor, young thing, had never been taught by her parents to look beyond the surface of things; and hence, when he told his impassioned tale of love, and sported vows of unchanging affection, good faith and fidelity, she believed every word, and revelled in day-dreams of pure delight, without once attempting to calculate in a rational way the probability of their being realized. The pair figured at balls, concerts, parties, the opera, the play, and on the fashionable promenades for a brief space, and then a match was bruited abroad, and they were made one by the holy bonds of matrimony;-and shortly thereafter, I was sent, like a deserted bird, to shelter under their roof. tolerably fair wife, had it been her lot to have been mated to a less imperious, and a more humble minded man. Fitzmaurice was in reality a stern, dogmatic man; one whose will was his law in all matters, and Lucy, being much of the same cast, could ill brook control, or think of doing aught contrary to her own good will and pleasure. She could extract passing sweet notes from her pianoforte-sweet enough, indeed, to charm the heart of a social man, but, alack! they lacked power to exorcise, or even lull to rest the foul demon that lurked in Edmund's bosom. "Ah! Fanny, it must be dreadful indeed, when a young, misguided, deluded, and confiding creature wakes up from her shadowy dreams of coming bliss, and finds that instead "Young as I then was, it struck me very of being linked by the bonds of wedlock to a forcibly that there was none of that delight- man of virtue and honor, as she fondly imaful intercourse betwixt this pair, which hal-gined, she has, in blind security, given her hand to a gambler, and a habitual tippler, to of ground they pass over on their way to the be his alone in weal and woe, in sickness and narrow house where all disputes terminate. health, for better and worse, till the ruthless Life, especially in a domestic way, is made hand of death disannuls the tie. Yes, Fan-up of small things, and to insure comfort, ny, after a few weeks had been flirted away these must all be attended to in the spirit of in the usual gay and thoughtless manner by kindness and courtesy. the young couple, the mask fell from the character of Fitzmaurice, and he stood forth "I do not mean that man and wife should wear the mask of deceit by saying 'my love,' as large as life, in his proper colors-a profli-my dear,' and my sweet,' at every breath, gate and a libertine. 66 Reprehensible, indeed, is the conduct of those doating mothers who treasure up woe for their ill-fated offspring, by descending to mean and disingenuous intrigues, with a view to procure eligible matches, and advantageous settlements for them in the world. Had Dame Glenville exercised less of her arbitrary authority over her henpecked husband in order to induce him to furnish the 'needful' to procure the good things of life for the keen whetted appetites of a certain portion of fashionable loungers, it is questionable if Fitzmaurice would have appeared in the character of a suitor for Lucy, or have formed the extravagant notion of getting a fortune with her, ample enough to repair the wreck which gaming and dissipation had made of his own Of course his splendid visions on this score exploded and left nothing but smoke and foul vapors behind; for alas, poor Glenville found it a hard task to keep his person free from durance vile, after his thoughtless expenditure to establish his claim to respectability. means. under certain circumstances on certain occasions, and before company, who, generally speaking, live together very disagreeably in the privacy of domestic retirement. Such things ought not to be, and when the law of love dwells in the heart and illumines the countenance, the words of peace, frankness, and intelligent esteem flow from the tongue, in an easy, graceful and winning manner. "I intend not to go into a detail of all the sinful, and of course, disagreeable scenes which I witnessed in my early years, from being placed in juxtaposition with this unhapPy pair, and shall therefore rapidly glance at the concluding act, which fearfully shows that Edmund's cup of iniquity was full and Years on years have posted brimming over. away since the tragical occurrence that numbered him with the dead transpired, and yet, methinks, I see him now, pale and mangled, standing before me. "He had, in company with some of his boon companions, enjoyed, according to common speech, the 'feast of reason and the flow "Now, Fanny, I will not attempt to es- of soul,' and afterwards repaired with them timate how far this mortification of Edmund's to the gaming table, where he risked fearfully fondest hope wrought out evil for Lucy, and lost all by his fool-hardy temerity. Irribut one thing is morally certain, viz:-that tated by his bad luck, he quarrelled with some where and when the vast importance of well- one of his wicked companions, and thus, with founded mutual attachment is overlooked or mischief and malice in his heart, he wended depised, there can be no solid happiness in his way towards his own habitation. I was in the married state. Aught deserving the the hall when he entered, and he paused as name of happiness must emanate from wise it were, to look on me, so that I had a distinct and well ordered conduct, and this presup- view of the expression of his features. It poses that wisdom, morality, and virtue must was horrid, aye, horrid in the extreme; in be duly consulted, and duly esteemed and ho- fact, I never saw anything more so before, or nored according to their worth and dignity.since that period. His bloated countenance Be it observed, however, that there is in the was savage, stern, and repulsive, and his world a certain thing, nicknamed happiness teeth were firmly set together as he walked by many who claim to be wise in their day on with a firm tread toward a chamber, the and generation; but this thing so called, hav- door of which he closed behind him and fasting no affinity with either morality or virtue, ened in my hearing. I did not think much is but of short duration, like the crackling of of this, for such an occurrence was in no way thorns in a fire, which soon dies away. wonderful, where all was so much out of joint Harmony of thought, feeling, and action are in point of propriety; but the fears of the closely connected with real domestic happi-household, in common with my own, were ness, and when these are not cared for nor studied in the little as well as the great concerns of life, the comforts of such will be of an imperfect kind indeed. Worse still will it be when a married pair stand up in the attitude of domestic gladiators, to dispute about every trifle, and contend for victory every inch soon alarmed by the report of a pistol from that very chamber. Thitherward they sped and burst open the door; but, alas! it was too late, for the ball had done its work too surely, and there lay Fitzmaurice, stretched upon the flour, an inanimate mass of senseless clay. TALES OF THE SEA. THE FATE OF THE HORNET. The weather-beaten sons of the sea had been for some time enjoying themselves in telling and hearing jokes and "yarns," and singing songs; and the last verse of a song had just been repeated in chorus, when the Quarter Master shoved his head into the steerage, with 66 Sorry to disturb you, gentlemen, but the First Lieutenant told me to tell you it was all hands." "O, mercy! it is enough to curdle one's blood, to think that man should be so unjust to his God, so recreant to his own best interests, and so zealous in the service of the enemy of mankind, as to think that he may at pleasure escape from the ills of life, and find an everlasting quietus in the tomb. Terrible delusion! and awful must be the fate of those who give way to such temptation, instead of praying-deliver us from evil.' But I will no longer dwell on this disagreeable part of my narration, as what has been said before will enable you, my dear Fanny, to form a tolerably correct idea of the unprofitable way my early years were spent. The circumstan- "All hands, Johnson! what the deuce is to ces that surrounded me were highly unfavor-pay now; it don't blow any harder, does it?" able to the growth, or development of veneration, love of my species, proper self-respect, benevolence, or any of the high moral qualities, which beautify youth and hallow age, whilst the contrary evils of my nature were allowed to grow luxuriantly without being checked. However true the saying that all is not lost that is in jeopardy, it is a dangerous and dreadful thing to trifle with young immortals, so as to let the precious morn of youth slip away, without attempting to cast in the seed of virtue into the mind. "No, sir; but the clouds have been banking up to leeward for an hour or two, and I think we shall have it good and strong at S. E., and when it comes out in that quarter, sir, in this gulf, after a norther, you may expect a stinger, for no gale loses its force by being blown back again. It is a bad night, sir, a very bad night, and so dark that a man's eyes are of no more use than a dead eye button." "Well, Johnson," said one of the elder midshipmen, "I see you eyeing that grog very hard; drink to your sweetheart or your wives, and away with you. I suppose you have roused the Captain and the First Lieutenant by your croaking, and we must lose three or four hours sleep and get a set of wet jackets, because there is not wind enough to blow the clouds out of sight to leeward." "I expect better things of you, Fanny, when, in the course of time, your little ones begin to toddle about the hearth, and beguile your cares with their innocent prattle.Throw in the good seed betimes into their youthful minds; but when you have done this, beware of folding your arms under the idea that you have done all your duty. You "You will see, sir, when you get on deck," must also watch and pray, and water it with said the old man, setting down his tumbler; the dews of affection-pull up the weeds" and if you come below without seeing the which would mar the crop, and the future will bring forth to you and yours a harvest of joy. The career of your offspring may not be, according to the wild, dreamy notions of deluded spirits, a splendid one, but it will be safe, honorable and happy, and lead to glory and immortality, when this state is ended." All things concurring the balance of Aunt Temple's story, which will form a contrast with the foregoing, will be given at some future opportunity. strength of it, my name is not John Johnson. It is an ugly night, and one in which we shall want good seamen; and we have them, too, thank God, aft and forward." Arrayed to meet the storm, the inmates of the steerage hurried on deck, where they found the other officers and crew already at their stations. The night was singularly changed: the wind had lulled, being now insufficient to fill the sails, and although all was fearfully dark, broad off on the lee beam, the sky was almost inky blackness, and when REASONS FOR HAVING A WIFE. -Have you it lightened, which it did incessantly, the means? She will keep and increase them.rapid increase of this ominous mass was very Have you none? She will help you to get perceptible. Each stood quietly awaiting them. Are you in prosperity? She will orders from the First Lieutenant, who had double it. Are you in adversity? She will again assumed the charge of the deck; but comfort and direct you. Are you at home? no orders were issued, and, save the rumbling She will make you comfortable. Are you of the thunder, the waving of the sea, and abroad? She will wish and welcome your creaking of spars and rigging, all was quiet, each one calmly awaiting the struggle they knew must shortly ensue with the elements. A flash showed the Captain and First Lieutenant in conversation, and the order was "immediately given, to "Man main top-sail, return. THOUGHT is an exalted gift-superior to language. The painter may portray the beauty of the rose, but he cannot copy its fragrance. "Aye, aye, sir." He had just time to give directions to the helmsman, when a peal of thunder, as if the last trump had sounded, was followed by the rushing of a sea which broke over the ship, flooding her decks over her guns. For a time it was doubtful to the few who in that trying minute could spare a thought from their own safety for the salvation of all, whether she would rise again; but her ports had been knocked out, and she slowly freed herself with the loss of her launch and first cutter, and many a gallant fellow who had been swept away by the overwhelming sea. When the ship had in a manner cleared herself, the|| men looked instinctively to the First Lieutenant for orders, but his place was already filled by another, he having been cast overboard by a piece of a quarter boat. "Haul aft the fore-top-mast stay-sail sheet -haul in weather-main and lee cross jack braces-lay square the after yards." It was life and death, and the orders were promptly executed, and although she moved sluggishly, she at length fell off before the wind, when the head-yards were squared, and all breathed more freely, although dashing along twelve knots under bare poles, in the direction of the land. The sea was fast rising, and, meeting as it did that caused by the norther, formed a cross swell of the most dangerous character. he, after a pause, "it may have been an error in my judgment, in not standing off farther to the eastward, but then who could foresee that the gale would turn into a tornado, and blow from this quarter? How far do you make us off, Mr. -?" to the master, who had been in the cabin making a hasty calculation. 66 Thirty-five miles from our former anchorage, and twenty-eight from the Jamlimpus shoals as we head.' "Can't you manage to make a lee of Cape Boxo ?" "No, sir; not without bringing the wind on the larboard quarter." 66 "There is an answer to that proposition," said the Captain, as a sea overtook them, and fell with a stunning force on the deck. Well, master," said he, with a melancholy smile, "examine the chart and choose us a soft place, for go ashore we must, unless Heaven," and he raised his hat respectfully, “interpose a miracle.” The ship now labored very heavily, met as she was by the swell of the former gale, and impelled with irresistible force by the violence of the wind. "She must let water into her seams," said the Captain; "what water have you, Mr. Plane?" to the carpenter, who had lashed himself to the pumps, up to his waist in water. "Four feet, sir, and she increases rapidly." Many stood by when the report was made, and those who may have hoped before, now knew their fate was sealed; but no change could be perceived in their demeanor, and although many were there who would have willingly broken into the spirit-room to have died drunk, they well knew their officers; and that the dicipline which had been rigidly enforced for two years, would not now be relaxed, and that the punishment of an offender even in that trying moment, would be exemplary. But one word was spoken by one of the crew to an officer. A man, (a half idiot he was considered, although a good seaman,) came to the captain as he stood by the mainmast, rigging the pump brakes, and asked permission to go below for his Bible, which he said his mother had given him; but being refused, he fell back quietly among the group who were holding on by the taffrail. The gale steadily increased, and the ship now frequently lost her way through the water, being stunned, as it were, by the tremendous head seas. At times it would be comparatively smooth, when she would acquire a velocity that caused every timber in her to tremble; then meeting the sea, she would be stopped short, and quivering in her headlong course and buried as far aft as the mainmast. It was then that the good qualities of Written for the Ladies' Garland. LEAVES FROM MY DIARY. BY SEATON. Gentle reader! before commencing what the ship showed themselves; for again and again she cleared herself. Twice in succession she was met by a sea which totally immersed all the forward part of the ship. At first she rose slowly, attempting to free, but it was a feeble effort; and again she plunged || I am now about to relate, I will first give deeper and settled gradually in the water you an insight into my character, or at least, with a tremulous motion. Another still more explain to you my profession. feeble effort to rise, when she suddenly raised her stern and plunged headlong beneath the wave which spent its fury on the last resting place of the gallant little HORNET. Lady's Wreath. Written for the Ladies' Garland. BY JAMES LUMBARD. At creation's early dawn, Darkness lay upon the deep. Of that dark and des'late scene. But the Lord of hosts, whose might Lo! the sun received its birth! Streams of golden sunlight fell All were in its beauty clad! Than the gloom of ancient night, Long hung o'er the mind, to mar With a sombre wing, its light! Truant of a rayless tomb! Which had been too long confined. What a glorious dawning this, Which unfolded to our view Still may this unerring ray, With its pure and holy beams, Guide us as we thread our way Through life's ever-varying scenes! May it guide us till we rest From each spirit-saddening care, Till we reach that region blest, Than earth's loveliest scene more I am a retired physician; for, in consequence of my great age, I am disabled from attending the diseases of my fellow mortals, and the little practice that I now perform, is dwindled down to a few of my most intimate friends. My practice, at one time, was very extensive, and through it I have become well acquainted with the human character in all its varieties. I have seen misery in its worst forms, and sufferings that would make any but an old physician's blood chill to hear tell of. I have seen the young, whose form and features have charmed every beholder, rendered almost disgusting by pain and disease. I have seen young men just stepping into manhood, with all life's bright illusions before them, thrown helpless upon their beds, and made (if I may use a common expression,) old in a day. Among all my patients, I was never more interested than in Herbert Mordaunt. I had been called upon to attend him by a widow, who lived a few squares from my residence, and with whom Herbert had a short time before taken up his abode. I was captivated by the description of the 'sweet youth,' as the widow called him, and as quickly as possible proceeded to her house. On entering the room in which the young man lay, I found Mrs. Morison's description of him not at all exaggerated. He looked about twenty-five years of age, of a mild and prepossessing appearance. His countenance was serene, though melancholy, and on my entrance a quiet smile stole over his face. I saw almost immediately that the youth was in the last stage of consumption, and that Death would soon claim him as a subject. "There is no hope, Doctor, I see by your countenance;" said he. "Fear not to say so, for Herbert Mordaunt has long been ready to depart." On hearing this, the good widow burst into tears, and taking his thin, bony hand, pressed it tightly in her own. "Nay, nay, good mother, you should not weep, but rejoice that my pilgrimage will so soon be ended. I have suffered"here a spasm overcame his utterance, and he sank back exhausted on his pillow. This set the widow's tears to flowing faster, and seeing how much her favorite's situation agitated her, I advised her to leave the room, which she at length did, invoking blessfair!ings on her protegee's head. |